The Theology of Warfare

Mahdawiyyah, Part 13 · The Shield, Part 3 Soldiers were dying under chemical attack, the means to answer in kind were available, and the order that came back was a single word: forbidden. This session asks why the Islamic Republic has never pursued weapons of mass destruction despite decades of sanctions and threats, and finds the answer is not political calculation but jurisprudence. The Qur'an states the purpose of military preparation as deterrence — striking awe into an enemy so that he abandons aggression before it starts — not killing for its own sake. Centuries before nuclear weapons existed, Shaykh al-Tusi and Shaheed al-Awwal had already ruled that poisoning an enemy's land is forbidden absolutely, a prohibition so firm that not even necessity overrides it, because poison cannot distinguish combatant from civilian and does not stop killing once the battle ends. The Prophet's own instructions to his commanders forbade killing the elderly, women and children, burning trees, or poisoning wells — limits that a single nuclear weapon breaks all at once. The session also draws a line the tradition insists on even in a war that is genuinely just: the population on the other side keeps its sanctity. And when chemical attacks were killing Iranian troops with the capability to retaliate sitting in Iranian hands, Imam Khomeini refused, asking what would then remain of the difference between the two sides. If deterrence, not destruction, is the entire point of preparing for war, what happens to a weapon that can only destroy? What the evening covers Deter, not kill. The Qur'anic purpose of military strength, and why a weapon built only to annihilate falls outside it. A thousand-year-old ruling on poison. What the classical jurists forbade, and why they refused to let even necessity override it. The Prophet's rules of engagement. The specific limits placed on seventh-century warfare — and what they rule out today. A principle tested in fire. Imam Khomeini's wartime refusal to answer chemical attacks with chemical weapons.

In this session

Full session

Full Video on YouTube

Play

Sermon: The Theology of Warfare

Play Read

Nohe: Baba Ali

Play

Ziyarah: Ziyarat Aal-e-Yasin

Play